THE AIRSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 148, 19 December 1929, Page 9

THE AIRSHIP

LORD THOMSON'S FAITH

PRAISE OF RIOI

BIG STEP FORWARD

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 7th November.

"One of the.gravest problems I have to face at the present time is the expansion of the aiv forces of other countries," said Lord Thomson, the Minister of Air, at ti dinner of the Authors' Club.

"Even in America, apparently the safest of all countries, the expenditure on aviation and the air services generally lias increased by 124 per cent, in the last few years. AH over the world one finds almost frenzied attempts being made—certainly attempts not justified by the budgets of either their air forces, or, perhaps what is more far-sighted, their air power by subsidising civil aviation.

"What the situation will bo ten years hence one has great difficulty in envisaging. Unless a halt is called, it seems to me that competition in other forms of armaments will fall into insignificance ill comparison with what is being done in aviation."

Dealing with the question of whom to subsidise and how to subsidise, Lord Thomson suggested that as tlio taxpayer and the ratepayer paid for the roads and the harbours, it seemed only reasonable that the public should pay for the air routes. One of the great handicaps -which had affected aviatiou in this country had been the difficulty in getting- air routes laid with public money. Therefore, it was an inimenso satisfaction to him that municipal authorities were taking up the question ir a practical fashion.

AIRSHIP PROBLEM.

Referring to airships, Lord Thomson said:—

"I am an unrepentant believer in the future of iighter-than-air transport. Without describing myself as an engineer, I will say that I have felt for a long time that from the British •point of view lighter-than^air transport is a problem to be solved. We are, <as an Empire, a collection of peoples divided by wide ocean spaces^ and we have to seek something capable of travelling those wide spaces, something with immense range, consuming cheap fuel, and with ample accommodation. The more I studied, the matter the more I became convinced that as far as the British Empire was concerned we leave to find some solution -of that problem. "It was in that spirit that I spent four weary months wrangling with a sub-committee of the Cabinet, in which my principal opponent was a very determined Yorkshireman. (Laughter.1) Eventually I did succeed in extracting from him a large sum of money for a great experiment. During the last few months this great experiment has had some sort of test, but not a searching test." ElOl was the work of some highly competent men) If he had any quality it was that of "spotting" men, and in 1924, when he was first meditating this problem, it was his good fortune to come across the men who designed, and constructed this particular ship.

Alluding to his trip in the airship, Lord Thomson said that he sat down, after a comfortable breakfast, with of£ce arrangements around him, under conditions of quiet aud detachment which he had never before experienced. He had never done two better hours' ■work in the. whole of his life. There was no perceptible motion, no rude shock as_ there was on the ocean. It was possible to look out of a window and survey half a county. Frequently they travelled at seventy miles an hour,.'and never once were they usin<* all their' power. " °

THE AET OF MOORING.

On the difficult question of mooring Lord Thomson said:—

"Imagine the Berengaria or the Majestic attempting to dock with an untrained crew. When I last visited New Tork it took twelve tugs to tow in the Majestic. People sneer at airships'because it takes 300 men to pull one down.

It is said that airships are fairweather ships. You will not hear that from the navigator or the designer. The weather they are most frightened of when they are mooring is a dead calm. What they would like is a good stiff breeze. They will swing at that mast with the wind at eighty miles an hour, or even more. The whole situation has been transformed- since these masts were introduced. The RlOl is an immense improvement on any ship that now exists. She- is three times as strong as the Graf Zeppelin. She may not tie as fast as we should like.- or have the range that we should like; but she marks a very big step forward."

He put opponents of -lighter-than-air craft into four categories:—(l) Natural obstructionists, to whom must be added the timorous; (2) the shippin" companies, which foresaw a very formidable rival; (3) the petrol retailers because ElOl employed engines burning oil which cost £5 a ton, compared with about £25 a ton for petrol, and gave a range from 25 to 30 per cent more. They would see the price of heavy fuel going up. The fourth class of opponents were the heavier-than-air champions.

The vast majority.of exports at the Air Ministry are against airships." ho declared. "They arc all wedded to heavier-than-air craft. All power to lioavier-than-air craft; let them prosper. Bu> I do ask these critics to bear m mind that wo are citizens- of a great Empire, and that there is room for every kind of progressive development. "We cannot have too many methods.

„." IJ (I ant to see," he declared, in this greatest development of human transport, the British taking their natural position right in the van of human progress. I do not believe we can hold that position unless we have an absolutely open mind to all forms of aerial development and boundless energy."

Referring to his recently published book, "Air Facts and Problems," Lord Thomson said that it was the only one out of which he had made money. " This is not because many people hav6 bought it," he added, "but" because I sold tho serial rights to an American newspaper." (Laughter.)